North Central Bronx Hospital is planning a $46 million renovation of its emergency department to make space to build a medical unit for Rikers detainees that’s years behind schedule.
The Norwood public hospital is seeking to restructure its first-floor emergency room by expanding capacity for adult patients and relocating its pediatric, radiology and psychiatric emergency units – part of a longer-term plan to build a medical facility to take in people held on Rikers Island, according to a certificate-of-need application it submitted to the Department of Health on Monday. North Central Bronx Hospital will be home to one of three of New York City Health + Hospitals’s so-called outposted therapeutic housing units, which are secure facilities for sick and mentally ill detainees on hospital campuses to help them receive medical care.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to build outposted therapeutic housing units in 2019 to help the city transfer patients out of the Rikers infirmary and ultimately, reduce the population at the notoriously violent jail complex before its scheduled closure in 2027. The city has invested at least $718 million to build 360 beds across Bellevue Hospital, Woodhull Hospital and North Central Bronx Hospital, but all of the projects have dragged past their planned deadlines. The first unit of its kind at Bellevue Hospital, for example, was supposed to open in 2022, but has stalled as the city Department of Correction says it is still working on construction and has not yet hired enough staff for the facility, local news outlet Hell Gate reported last month.
The outposted therapeutic housing unit at North Central Bronx, which is expected to have 106 beds, was supposed to be completed by this year, according to a report published in 2022 by the Independent Rikers Commission, a panel of experts appointed by the mayor and City Council to map out the closure of the jail complex. But the facility, along with the unit at Woodhull, will more likely be ready in 2028 because of continued delays, the commission said in a report published in March. The delayed units represent just one piece of the planned Rikers closure that’s behind schedule; the borough-based jails to replace the facility are nowhere near finished and the city is expected to miss its legally mandated 2027 deadline to close Rikers, according to the commission.
A representative from Health + Hospitals did not respond to questions from Crain’s about why construction is behind schedule at North Central Bronx and when it expects the unit to open.
The emergency room expansion at North Central Bronx Hospital will allow it to prepare its upper floors for the outposted therapeutic housing unit, according to the construction application. The hospital also plans to create a two-bay ambulance entrance so it can use an existing ambulance port for a secure entryway for detainees, the filing said.
Though the emergency room expansion at North Central Bronx Hospital is necessitated by the outposted therapeutic housing unit, it will also ease increased volume, the hospital said in its application. Emergency room visits increased 37% between 2021 and 2024, exceeding 46,000 visits last year.
